ed the fatal results of
yielding to fashion. The learned Doctor Trall in writing on this
subject wisely observes:

The evil effects of tight-lacing, or of lacing at all, and of
binding the clothing around the hips, instead of suspending it
from the shoulders, can never be fully realized without a
thorough education in anatomy and physiology. And if the
illustrations[3] here presented should effect the needed reform
in fashionable dress, the resulting health and happiness to the
human race would be incalculable; for the health of the mothers
of each generation determines, in a very large measure, the vital
stamina of the next. It is obvious that, if the diameter of the
chest, at its lower and broader part, is diminished by lacing, or
any other cause, to the extent of one fourth or one half, the
lungs B, B, are pressed in towards the heart, A, the lower ribs
are drawn together and press on the liver, C, and spleen, E,
while the abdominal organs are pressed downward on the pelvic
viscera. The stomach, D, is compressed in its transverse
diameter; both the stomach, upper intestines, and liver are
pressed downward on the kidneys, M, M, and on the lower portions
of the bowels [the intestinal tube is denoted by the letters f,
j, and k,] while the bowels are crowded down on the uterus, i,
and bladder, g. _Thus every vital organ is either functionally
obstructed or mechanically disordered_, and diseases more or less
aggravated, the condition of all. In post-mortem examinations the
liver has been found deeply indented by the constant and
prolonged pressure of the ribs, in consequence of tight-lacing.
The brain-organ, protected by a bony inclosure, has not yet been
distorted externally by the contrivances of milliners and
mantuamakers; but, lacing the chest, by interrupting the
circulation of the blood, prevents its free return from the
vessel of the brain, and so permanent congestion of that organ,
with constant liability to headache, vertigo, or worse
affections, becomes a "second nature." The vital resources of
every person, and all available powers of mind and body, are
measurable by the respiration. Precisely as the breathing is
lessened, the length of life is shortened; not only this, but
life is rendered correspondingly useless and miserable while it